]]>Have you always wanted to run a marathon, but don’t think you can? I have news for you…you can!

If completing a marathon is on your bucket list, then I want to tell you about a company called Mainly Marathons.

I discovered Mainly Marathons in 2015. I was driving across the United States from Lexington, Kentucky visiting my friend, Kim, to St. George, Utah where I was doing a race.

I just decided a couple years before hand that I was going to run 50 marathons in 50 states before I turn 50. I was going to be driving right through Kansas and Oklahoma and still needed those states, so I was looking for a race in one of them around the time I would be driving through. It was just my luck that I ran into Mainly Marathons.

They specialize in series from 4 to 9+ days where you can run a marathon in a different state on multiple days in a row. I happened to be driving through Oklahoma and Kansas right in the middle all of their Dust Bowl Series that covers five states. And bonus that the races were during the week, which was perfect for my schedule

They were less than a week away, so I emailed them to find out if I could sign up the day of the race, which I could…another bonus!

I drove to the first race. It was a little hard to find because it was in a small town, it was dark, and they were only about 20 to 30 cars in the parking lot.

I am used to racing in races with thousands of people, so this threw me off at first. I showed up and everyone was super duper friendly and helpful. They asked me if these were my first marathons, which they were not, but they were my first two in a row. I had never run two long runs back to back, not even more than a 10K two days in a row, so I wasn’t sure how my body would respond.

The courses are set up so that there is a 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon (and now even a 50K) so if you wanted to run a marathon and your kids or partner or friend wanted to run a 10K or half marathon, you could both do it on the same day on the same course. I love this.

The other thing I love is that the marathons are loops or out and backs that you repeat several times. For example, the course might be 14 laps for the marathon, seven laps for the half marathon, etc.

Each time you come around for your next lap, you take a rubber band and put it around your wrist so you don’t lose track of your laps.

At the turn around area, there are tables set up with pretty much anything you could ever want to eat or drink during your race, and there’s another table where you can put your own food and drinks. I super love this! That way you don’t have to carry any of your own stuff because you know you’ll be coming back by the tables every 15 to 25 minutes or so.

The other thing I like about the loops is that if it starts off cold in the morning, you can wear all the clothes you want, and as soon as you warm up after the first or second lap, you can shed all the clothes put them in a pile by the table as they are there for you after the race.

No need to put on an old shirt because you know you’re going to have to toss it and never get it back. This is also nice because I don’t like to be freezing cold at the start of the race, but I warm up really quickly when I run.

The very best part of the Mainly Marathons races are the people! Not only the people who run the company, but the people who follow them around and do all of their races, and I mean all of their races.

There are people that run all of the series’, all over the US, all year long with the company. I’ve been doing races for them now for the last five years, and I saw the same people last month in Washington and Oregon that I saw in Kansas and Oklahoma in 2015. That is really amazing!

And there are all sorts of people walking/running at every race. There are young people, old people, short people, tall people, heavy people, light people, disabled people, and more.

At their last race I ran, there was a woman walking with two braces on her legs and crutches! WHAT!? Mainly Marathons has no cut off time so literally ANYONE can finish one of their races.

If you look at their race results, you’ll see the average marathon time is about seven hours. Sure, there are people that finish in four hours, and less, but there are equal number of people that finish in nine hours or more.

This is definitely the company to go with if you’re not sure if you can finish a marathon in a specific time. There is so much support on the course. Every time somebody passes you or you see them on the out and back, they say “Hi”, “Good morning”, “Great job”, “Looking strong”, etc. Over the course of a marathon, and especially if you do a series, you get to know every single person you are running/walking with.

Later in 2015, I did a seven-day series. Yep! You read that correctly, I ran seven marathons in seven states in seven days.

One of the days I walked over half the marathon and the entire time I found people to chat with if I wanted to, or if not, I just put in my earbuds, listened to music, and pushed through on my own.

Either way I felt constantly supported 100% of the time. Nobody acts like they are better than anyone else at any of the races, and everyone truly wants to see each and every person out on the course succeed in whatever goal they have for the day.

I still stay in touch with people I met five years ago on social media. Every series they have, has a different Facebook group where you can learn the best hotels, places to eat, and tips about the courses, towns, etc. They have group meetups in each town, and past participants stay in the groups to help out the newbies.

Before my seven-day series, I asked in one of the groups how to even train for it, because I personally have never done something like that before. A girl got on and told me to run 10 miles for 10 days in a row. I did that. I think that is what made my experience so great as far as my body was concerned. I have no idea if I would’ve felt as good as I thought for seven marathons in a row if I wouldn’t have done that training.

I have seen that woman (Patricia) at almost every race I’ve done with mainly marathons. And at every race, when she sees me, she treats me like we’ve been besties forever, and I love it! She treats everyone that way, as does every other person that I’ve met during any of the races.

I still have 14 states to do before my 50th birthday, which is in three years. I’ve already planned my next three years and it includes three different series to check off 13 and then finally, the summer before I turn 50, I will head to Alaska and do the race with them there.

When I was originally looking up races in Alaska, I found several. I thought I had always wanted to do the one that is on the Summer Solstice in June for my final state. But after my experiences with Mainly Marathons, there is no one I would rather finish my 50 states with than Mainly Marathons.

]]>I do some sort of workout every single day. Partially because I need it for my sanity, partially because I like to eat a lot of food, and partially because I am a competitive triathlete and like to do well when I race.

When people ask me what my favorite workouts are, I take all of this, plus my busy lifestyle, in to consideration. Therefore, my favorite workouts must burn calories, work toward racing better, fit in with my busy life, and most importantly release feelings of anxiety and overwhelmed that I feel on a daily basis.

People always ask me what is the best workout? I always have the same response: the best workout is the workout you will do! And typically, the only workout you will do, and stick with, is the one you love.

Here are my favorite workouts!

1. Swimming with ALL the equipment.

Swimming is my meditation. It calms me, silences the voices in my head, and always always makes me feel relaxed, but fully worked out, from head to toe. I love the way the water drowns out any outside noise and keeps my focus on counting strokes, laps, intervals, etc.

Even though I love swimming, I don’t necessarily like to swim hard. I do a weekly time trial to help with my racing, but my favorite type of swimming is a little of everything, using all the equipment I have. I have fins, paddles, buoy, band, snorkel, kickboard, and a parachute!

My ideal swim day would be about two hours of pool time doing 500 yards with each piece of equipment. I love swimming all four strokes, but only with lots of equipment.

I do like a small hard set, like 5×100 on 1:30 or a 500 time trial, as long as I have time afterwards to put on my fins and do a nice long easy kick set. And I always like to finish with 200 breaststroke, my favorite of all the strokes!

2. Stepmill.

The stepmill is that thing at the gym that looks like you’re walking up a down escalator.

I love the stepmill because even at level one I’m sweating my ass off! Even at a low level, stepping strengthens my legs, gets my heart rate up, and it makes me feel like I’m getting a great workout, especially if I have a race with hills in the near future.

One of the main reasons I like the step mill, is because I go slow enough that I can work on my phone while I step. I do about 50% of my businesses through my phone and I always have hours and hours of busy work I could be doing.

When I am on the stepmill, I can get it all done.

I typically alternate between focused work on my phone during recovery/easy intervals, scrolling through social media and doing busy work during my moderate Intervals, and then listening to music or watching a show during my hard or running intervals. That way I get a little bit of everything!

3. Teaching indoor cycling.

I love teaching indoor cycling because I love cycling indoors, I love deciding what the class will be doing based on what I need to work on, and I love getting paid to do it!!

If I wasn’t a fitness instructor, I would probably still have indoor cycling on my list for many of the same reasons why I like the stepmill. I can work while I’m getting my bike in and it all helps me become a better athlete. The fact that I’m the instructor and I can do more climbing when I have a race coming up with a lot of hills, or more sprinting and spinning when I am tapering is just a bonus.

And of course, it’s a double bonus that I get paid to do it!

4. Strength workout.

I admittedly don’t do a lot of strength training. I try to incorporate my strength training into my triathlon training by doing things like using paddles during my swim workout and using the stepmill as my running/walking workout.

I also love climbing hills when I’m biking outside, but that happens pretty much never now that I have a baby and rarely get outside to ride. If I do strength training, it’s with moderate weighted dumbbells on a fit ball.

I have a sequence I do where I start with chest flies, move on to bent over rows, then straight arm pullovers, shoulder press, triceps extensions, and finally biceps curls. I typically do about 15 reps of each and then give my arms a break for a few minutes while I do crunches and twists on the ball.

I also spend time working on my balance, seated and kneeling on the fit ball. I am fortunate enough right now to be teaching a “Total Body Conditioning” class once a week at the gym where I do this work out about once a month.

5. Aqua running.

I don’t do this work out enough since I have limited time in the water, I typically just swim. But when I am injured, sore, or recovering, I definitely make time for it.

I do both deep and shallow water running. I prefer deep water running because it’s a lot more intense. I run without a flotation belt and do intervals alternating hard and easy efforts. This keeps me from getting bored, plus I can only do hard sprinting efforts for about a minute at a time before I need to recover anyway.

I typically mix it up with some high knees, butt kickers, side running, and cross country movements to stretch out my legs In between sets.

Join My Newsletter!

I just restarted up my weekly (or bi-weekly) newsletter where each week I post a workout alternating between swim, bike, run, strength, core, and flexibility. I have specific examples of all the workouts I mentioned today in my newsletters.

]]>Every year I pick up word that is my overall theme for the year. It’s typically describes a character trait I want to acquire or get better at or something that I believe is going to help me reach my goals and/or help create my ideal life.

After being pregnant for six months and having a baby for six months in 2018, I was ready to take action and get back to work toward my fitness, my finances, and getting my life together!

Historically, in order for me to get what I want, I make detailed plans of action, and work relentlessly. I’m typically doing tasks and activities every single day to get to where I want to be.

And since this is what I wanted, I was thinking about words like action, relentless, power, create, or something along those lines. But the universe had a different plan for me.

Every podcast I listened to, every audiobook that was suggested to me, everywhere I looked, the word ‘surrender’ kept poking its head at me. I didn’t like that word because I’ve always believed that I create my life and I have complete control over everything that goes on in it.

I worked hard to make my life into my ideal life, and I had never had a lot of tolerance for people who just sit back and let whatever happens, happens.

In my past, every good thing that I’ve ever accomplished in my life has been years and years in the making. It’s been baby steps and actions every day to create what I wanted.

I didn’t even understand what the word ‘surrender’really even meant, much less wanted to make it part of my everyday life. But like I said, it kept showing up in different ways, and so I decided to “surrender” to my new word for 2019.

I didn’t know what it would look like, so I just decided to let go of any expectations and whenever I felt stuck or at a crossroads or confused about a decision, I would just think of my word, and surrender.

My intention was to write this blog post at the beginning of the year when I picked my word, but I just found it in my notes app on my phone as an unfinished post as I was deleting old notes for Toss it Tuesday.

And since I am also doing a writing streak this month where I have to write at least 10 minutes a day, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone! Or as us vegans like to say “catch two butterflies with one net “!

Last night I had a tough one. After a two-hour fight with my boyfriend, I laid in bed not being able to sleep, with a throbbing headache and too many thoughts running through my head.

Normally in these situations, I repeat my usual mantra “I love and approve of myself, all is well in my world”, but instead, I decided to test out my word, Since it is the 11th month of the year, and I hadn’t really paid as much attention to it as I would’ve liked.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and said to myself “surrender”. Over the next couple minutes, I breathed and repeated my word over and over. I don’t know what I was expecting, but when I think about it now, what happened was exactly what I knew would happen.

I started crying uncontrollably and didn’t stop for an hour. I realized the entire year has been one of the hardest of my life, following the previous year, which was THE hardest of my life.

I had worked tirelessly to do it all. To take care of a baby, take care of myself, take care of a household, continue to work all of my businesses, train and race like I always had, keep up with old friends, continually making new connections, paying my bills, saving money for mine and Coura’s future, paying a little attention to the dogs, planning my future, keeping up with my personal development, and making sure I was holding it all together.

The truth is I was holding on by the smallest microscopic piece of thread that seemed to unravel almost every night, but somehow strengthened through the night so I could get through the next day. This was exhausting! And as soon as I gave my mind and my body and my heart and my soul permission to surrender, I crumbled.

The good news is that I woke up feeling full of hope. I think that was one of the things that I didn’t admit that I was lacking over the last two years. I have an amazing support system.

I know what I want my future to look like. I know who I want to be. And I know the person I want Coura to see me as. If it takes me surrendering and letting go and living in the moment and following wherever life takes me to bring me peace of mind and happiness, I am all in!

I woke up to a message from an acquaintance on social media this morning who complimented me on being able to “go with the flow, roll with the punches, and handle whatever life throws at me”. This surprised me because I don’t feel like I do this at all.

It reminded me that one of my goals this year was to be more transparent. And if I was falling apart on a minute to minute basis, but people saw me as holding it all together and ‘going with the flow’, then I need to be a little more honest about how I put myself out in the world.

So as soon as I saw this blog post that I started in January, 11 months ago, I decided to go outside my comfort zone, and write about how I haven’t done a great job of utilizing my word for 2019, and this is what came out when I started writing

The other good news is that I still have eight weeks left of the year, and I am going to surrender the hell out of the rest of 2019!

I would love to hear about your word for 2019 and how it showed up for you! I would also love to hear about your word for 2020. I have mine in the works, but who knows, the universe may have other plans for me! Again!

]]>People often ask me what the challenges are being a mom of a baby at age 46. Since Coura is my first baby, I really don’t know what to compare to as far as if my challenges are different than the challenges of, let’s say, a 26-year-old mom, or a 36-year-old mom.

I think there are challenges being a mother at any age, so I don’t know if mine are any different than anyone else’s.

Here are MY biggest challenges as a mom…

1. Being tired all the time! Like ALL. THE. TIME!

My baby didn’t sleep more than 2 to 3 hours at a time until she was 9 months old. Then she’s miraculously started sleeping through the night, 6 to 8 hours at a time.

I thought I would start feeling normal. Not the case. Even now, at 16 months old, she typically sleeps 10 to 12 hours a night.

But half the week, she goes to sleep before I’m even home from work, so there goes my opportunity!

I’m trying like crazy to fit everything I want to do into my life, and it’s much easier to do all the things while she is asleep. So I find myself training, cleaning, organizing, working, etc all while she is sleeping.

This ends up cutting into my personal sleep time, so I’m still tired. I know I need to give some things up, but I just can’t decide what to put less energy into because I love every single thing I do!

2. I have less control of my life.

Like the lack of sleep, having a baby give me less time and choices for my own life, so it doesn’t surprise me that is still a challenge.

I used to be meticulous in planning my minute to minute schedule, now I plan a “sort of” schedule which changes constantly throughout the day. It took some getting used to, and it’s not what comes naturally to me, but I am adjusting.

The other challenge is that I don’t get to make all the decisions for my life and my baby. There is obviously a father involved and I’m not used to having to have someone else’s permission/opinion in making my day-to-day decisions and planning for my future.

3. Mommy guilt.

I do have mommy guilt, but it’s not toward my baby. I give her tons of love, affection, attention, consideration, time, and energy.

What I feel guilty about, is the lack of mommying I am doing toward my first two babies, Joey and Belle, my two fuzzy kids who used to get all of me and now barely get any of me. I am grateful they love me unconditionally because anyone else who got that little of my time, would definitely be out the door!

For me, being an older parent, the pros outweigh the cons. I care less about what other people think about me and my mommying, I already know how to take care of myself and make sure I am healthy and happy, and I don’t sweat the small stuff.

All of these would have been more of a problem if I had Coura 10 or 20 years ago.

I have also been fortunate enough to have had such a full life and had already done so many things and accomplished so much before having her.

So slowing down to care for a baby is fine with me. Like I have a choice ha ha!

Thanks to all the moms out there who have supported me over the last year and reached out to me with a hug or a pat on the back or a kind word or a “you got this mama”.

It has truly meant the world to me during the times where I felt like I wasn’t going to make it through another dark night.

]]>We’ve all heard the saying “I don’t find time to (fill in the blank), I make the time. I would agree that if we really want to succeed at something, we have to make it a priority. But I also think we can find time to do what is important to us.

Today I had 15 minutes in between Coura‘s swim lesson and when I had to go into the gym to teach a class. I could have done anything with those 15 minutes. I could have relaxed in my car, checked my email, texted a friend, read a book, jumped on social media, eaten a snack, watched part of a show on my phone, made a list, looked at my planner, etc. We all have countless things we can do each and every day, our lists are never ever done!!

But exercise is a priority for me so I decided to get out of the car, put Coura in the stroller, and run a mile! I found a small amount of time in my day so I used it for what was most important to me at that time.

If it was the previous day where I only slept 4 hours that night, I may have opted for a quick nap. If it was the day before that when rent was due and I had to borrow from my savings, I may have used that time for income earning activities. If it were the day before that one, I may have opted for relaxing on social media because I had already run 10 miles that day!

We all have a few minutes here and there during our day that are wasted because it doesn’t seem like enough time to really accomplish anything.

I 100% disagree. For those of you who know me, you know baby steps are how I do everything and all my life successes have been built on small seemingly insignificant actions that have built up over time and resulted in big amazing results!!!

For most people, these small pockets of time are wasted because by the time you decide what to do in that 10, 15, 20 minute period, it’s over. Or we think we can’t accomplish anything so we do something meaningless just to pass the time instead of something planned or executed toward a bigger goal or purpose.

So how do we get on the right track?

Here is what I do:

Know your priorities for the day/week/month/year (whatever time frame you are comfortable with)

Keep a running list of activities that can be done in small pockets of time

When you find an opening, no matter how small, plug in one of those activities!!

Right now I am training for an Ironman triathlon. This was a last minute decision a month ago (that’s last minute when endurance training is involved) so my training plan was to get a certain amount of hours in the pool, on the bike, and on my feet per week leading up the week before the race and then to taper. And it didn’t matter how I got them in!

I would park a quarter mile from the grocery store and walk every isle while shopping to get in a mile walk during a trip to the store. I would jump on the bike at the gym for 5 minutes before teaching a fitness class and go over my playlist instead of doing it sitting in the aerobics room. I would swim an extra 200 yards after my usual swim and skip my shower after.

While Coura was napping I would jump on my bike already set up on my trainer in the basement and I would ride for as long as I could until she woke up.

And of course I would make my “Total Body Conditioning” classes do running drills (today we did high knees, skips, butt kickers, side cross run, and backwards running) for a total of 15 minutes. I would take extra trips up and down the stairs when cleaning and doing laundry (bringing a couple clothes up at a time) to get in a few miles of stair climbing throughout the week!! And then while we are watching tv at night with the fam I use the time to foam roll, stretch, and massage my legs.

With all these little “found” segments of time, I amazingly got in 27 hours of training last week! I will add here that I woke up at 4am one morning to bike for 2 hours, my mom watched the baby one afternoon/evening so I could bike for 5 hours, and I ran a marathon plus walked 2 miles one of the days, but the majority of those other hours were less than 30 minute time blocks added up over the 7 days.

If your thing isn’t exercising, you can apply this to other areas of your life! Relationships, finances, personal growth, projects, cleaning, simplifying, etc.

If you have a book you wanted to read, carry it with you! Read 3 pages each time you go to the bathroom! Wake up 10 minutes earlier and read. Read while you’re waiting in the pick-up lane at your kids school. Read while you’re pumping gas. Read while your noodles are boiling. Read waiting in line at the post office or grocery store. Read while your kid is at soccer practice. Read while your oil is getting changed. Ask your spouse or kid to drive to your destination and read! You will have you book done in no time at all!!

Find and treasure these small windows of time to do what is important to you.

Time is our most precious resource. And we have 100% control on how we choose to spend our time. Use it to move your life in the direction you want it to go, use it to do what is going to make your life the very best it can be!!

I would love to hear how you are fitting it all in! I am constantly working toward optimal time management!

Whether you were out by choice or forced out due to injury, surgery, etc, any time away makes coming back a challenge. I wanted to share what helped me in case you are struggling and looking for a way to get back into running.

Out of the 3 disciplines of triathlon, for me the run was the hardest to get back in to, but the easiest to get back to where I was before I stopped running.

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, about 2 months in, I made the choice to stop running. I had a “high risk” pregnancy and decided it wasn’t worth the risk. A week before I found out, however, I had run a marathon, so I was still in great running shape when I stopped.

I didn’t run for the remainder of my pregnancy (6 months), the 6 weeks following the birth of my baby, and then another 4 weeks after that. During the 4 weeks after I was cleared to begin exercising again,

I rode the bike and did the elliptical and stepmill every single day at the gym. So although I wasn’t building up my “running” muscles, I was definitely building up my cardio and fitness levels before I started actually running. This helped me a LOT once I started back up!

The first thing I did was during my walks with my mom, Coura, and the dogs, I would run ahead with the dogs a few minutes and then run back to my mom and the baby.

The first couple times I did this I totaled about 5 minutes of running, the next week I did 10, and the following I did 15.

In those few weeks I also started focusing more on my nutrition and started overall feeling better due to being able to exercise, so I started losing some of my unwanted baby weight as well. Running also became easier as the pounds started coming off.

At the end of the 4th week I decided to sign up for a 5K. I personally do better with my workouts when they are “training” runs and not just running for “exercise”. I also like having a place to start so I can see improvements. I had no expectations and I knew whatever my time, it would be a post-partum PR (personal record).

I had a blast at the 5k. It was about 5 minutes slower than what I was doing before I got pregnant, which is about 1:20 per mile slower, and my effort was much much higher than my time showed! My heart rate felt almost maxed and my body was tired. But my heart and soul were happy and I had a starting point for getting back into running shape.

Over the next 4 weeks I started running 2x a week. One was “longer” (typically 3-4 miles) and one was a few minutes here and there either during a walk w the fam or on the treadmill a few minutes before or after I taught class at the gym.

After that 4 weeks, I did another 5K and took a minute off my time. At this point I had also lost most of my baby weight and Coura had just turned 6 months old which meant I could run with her in the stroller. It was coming into winter so I only ran with her a couple times, but it gave me hope and excitement for the upcoming spring/summer!

At this time, I decided to do a monthly 10K time trial on the treadmill to chart my improvement as well.

My first one was about 10 minutes slower than my usual 10K, but again a post-partum PR. My monthly 10K TT was my “long” run and I continued with one other run each week of about 1-3 miles. I was still doing stepmill weekly and biking at the gym 5 times a week. This improved my overall cardio and fitness level.

At the end of 6 months was my big test, I signed up for a half marathon to start running longer because my “A” race for the year was the St George 70.3 which was 3 ½ months later. Since my longest run had been 6.2 miles, the 13.1 was a challenge but I just took it easy with a goal of just running the whole thing. And guess what? Yep! A post-partum PR!!!

I kept up with my monthly 10K, my other shorter run, threw in a couple 5Ks, and weekly stepmill and biking at the gym. I did another half marathon 3 months later and took off almost 15 minutes!!!

The hardest part about getting back into running was getting started. For me it helped giving myself time on other “easier” cardio equipment to get some fitness back and shed a few pounds before I started running again.

It also helped me to have a monthly goal like my time trial and a few races set up to “test” my fitness and running.

And lastly, it really did help when I lost my baby weight and got back down to my pre-pregnancy weight. Running, in my experience, is much harder when I have more weight on my body. Running never came naturally to me so every advantage helps!

I am now officially one year out from the birth of Coura (her birthday was yesterday) and I would say I am only a few months away from being back to my pre-pregnancy race times. If it takes longer for you, don’t get discouraged, just make everything about your best NOW, not your best then! All my new distances are post-partum PRs and I’m learning to navigate my training/racing with a baby which is always an adventure in itself.

Have fun with it, be kind to your amazing body, and love yourself NO MATTER WHAT!!!

]]>As a kid and young adult, I always hated my thighs. It seemed no matter how much weight I lost or how strong I was (even running 7 marathons in 7 days) my legs were always “chubby” compared with the rest of my body.

My thighs always rubbed (even chafed when I ran) and my butt, hips, and thighs never had any definition. I could see every rib in my midsection and still had absolutely no definition in my legs.

I chalked it up to genetics and just wore clothes that accentuated my positive physical attributes and strategically hid my upper thighs under skirts, shorts, and skorts.

Even at my lowest weight as an adult, which was less than I weight now, I still had thicker and bulkier thighs.

Four years ago, I changed some things about my diet, and not only did I feel healthier, recovered more quickly, and had more energy, I also started seeing a teeny tiny hint of definition on the back of my thighs. I could actually see a hamstring! Yay!!

About a year later, I made a few more changes, and low and behold, my inner thighs started slimming down a bit! They barely rubbed and I didn’t have to slather on silicone lube every time I did a long run!!

Another year later, I started a new Beachbody program called 2B Mindset. It taught most of what I believed anyway about nutrition and added an emotional component that I was constantly struggling with.

I started seeing even more changes in my body, especially my “hate zone” thighs!! And the culmination of my small changes in my nutrition resulted in definition in not only my legs, but my butt and hips as well!

I admittedly have always been obsessed with my body image, so this newfound discovery made me very very happy!

I decided to become a 2B Mindset and Plant-Based Nutrition coach to help others, like me, who felt like giving up on their bodies because they just assumed they were doomed by genetics.

I can’t guarantee that what worked for me will work for you, but I’ll do everything I can to help you figure out what DOES work for you! That is my goal as a coach!

I am starting a new group in July to make it most cost effective for you! You have 4 options for coaching:

1. Sign up for personal daily accountability/coaching which includes meal evaluation, meal suggestions based on your likes/dislikes, time avail for food prep, and finances, plus daily contact through text. You will also have access to our group through ‘My Challenge Tracker’ app. Cost is $99 for 2 months.

2. Purchase the 2B Mindset program and get all access to videos, recipes, a nutrition tracking app, and all the product that comes with the program including a journal, water bottle, recipe book, and a step by step success guide. Plus, of course, coaching for 60 days by me through ‘My Challenge Tracker’ app. Cost: $120 plus shipping.

3. Order the 2B Mindset ‘Challenge Pack’ which includes everything in package 1 and 2 PLUS a month of Shakeology, a protein superfood meal-replacement shake, and a year of Beachbody On Demand, which is a program that streams all of Beachbody‘s workout programs including P90X, Insanity, Turbofire, PiYo and 600 more videos. Cost: $200 (June 2019 only, regular price is $220) plus shipping.

4. Join our support group and get all the support you need daily plus learn steps you can take each day to help you lose weight, gain more energy, recover more quickly, and feel better about yourself on our ‘My Challenge Tracker’ app for FREE!!!

If you are ready to jump in and make yourself a priority this summer, email coachsmith@usa.com, text 970-214-7745, message me, or respond to this post and I will help you get started right away!

If you’re not sure of this is the right program for you, contact me and we can chat about it and figure it out!

I’m proud of my progress and want to spread that feeling to you! There’s nothing better than loving yourself!

]]>I started this blog 5 years ago in July because I wanted to connect with people with similar interests, issues, and lifestyles. In my personal life, writing helps me figure my stuff out, clear my mind, and become a better version of myself.

On a biz level, many of my clients and customers constantly ask me the same questions so I want to have something to refer them to instead of just answering the same questions over and over again. I also just love to write.

It’s fun for me! And after all, I’m working toward more fun in my life, one of the reasons I added “fun” to food, fitness, finance, and fun!

When I first started, I was writing 2 blog posts a week. I was super excited to get it up and running. That soon became 1 post a week since I had 900 other things I love to do in my life and I had to create a little balance to keep them all in it!!

There have been a couple weeks where I have missed writing, but not many!!

And then Coura was born!!

I started writing less and less and I just looked this morning and it’s been over 3 months since I’ve written a blog post!

It would be so easy to blame the baby! After all, all moms know how much work it is to take care of another human, especially a tiny one that needs you to survive! It barely leaves time to take care of you, much less anything extra!

But I can’t blame the baby. I have time and energy for the things that are important to me, and lately I haven’t made the time (or energy) to write.

I’ve thought about writing almost every day. I’ve even jotted down ideas of what to write about. I’ve scheduled it, put it on my to-do list, and started and re-started writing streaks. But I just haven’t been able to bring myself to write!
Writers block? No time? No energy? No peace and quiet? None of the above!

To be honest the reason I haven’t been writing is because I feel like I have nothing to say. I have let my life and my dreams and my goals and my thirst for growth slip a little bit and I feel unworthy of sharing my life when I’m not working on bettering it.

I’ve always believed that I have the right to have issues or complain or sulk or bitch only about things I can change and only about things I am working to change. Lately everything I don’t want in my life I am allowing and I feel like I’ve put my journey to create my ideal life on hold. So why would anyone want to hear from someone who is powerless in her own life?

I have so many opportunities to listen to and read great personal growth books but I choose to spend my time watching Grey’s Anatomy (no offense to Meredith and the gang, I’m a huge fan) and the Voice (awesomely uplifting show).

I also have time in the mornings and evening to work on my bizes and work toward my ideal life, but typically do a lot of nothing or piddly activities that I feel are wasting my life away.

I need to make some changes, I want to make some changes, so I thought I would start with writing it all down!

Putting out to the universe that I am finally ready to get my shit together and work toward something bigger and better than what I am giving myself now.

I have no idea what all this even means or what I am even writing about! I just know I needed to start and do something and this is it!!

“Nothing changes if nothing changes” has always been a quote I believe in and has a lot of power and meaning for me. If you want something different, you need to do something different!

Start small, baby steps! Pick something you want to change in your life and start today doing one thing differently.

Drink water when you wake up, park far away from your office and walk, wake up 15 minutes earlier, go to bed 30 minutes earlier, cancel one of your subscriptions you don’t use, go through your closet and toss a few things, tell your friends how much you love them, eat fruit for breakfast, turn off the tv one night a week, eat more veggies, write down your goals, walk the dog longer, find a success partner, reach out to an old friend, meditate, join a gym, sign up for a 5k, eat out less, get outside more, share your story, challenge yourself daily, get uncomfortable, read 10 pages of a book every day, watch an inspirational YouTube video, plan your dream vaca, write down your goals, make a bucket list, eat less sugar, love yourself more, spend less on material things, have more adventures, breathe deeper, love harder, be more you!

In my opinion, the bike was the easiest for me to get back on, but the hardest to get back to where I was, especially since I was training for an Ironman when I got pregnant and it is now winter here in Colorado.

My baby is almost 7 months old, and I have only been on my bike outside one time in over a year. It’s a lot easier for me mentally, physically, and schedule wise, to do my training either at the gym where there’s childcare and bikes with feedback, or on my trainer in my basement where I don’t have to leave the house, and can do it anytime.

For those reasons, I probably will stay primarily indoors for another few months.

My first race back is in May, which will be 11 months after Coura was born. I plan on biking indoors until March, which will give me two months to transfer my indoor skills to outside riding.

After my six-week check-up and I got the OK to start working out again, my first workout was on the bike. The first week I did 30 minutes, with no resistance, just spinning my legs and getting my butt back in saddle shape! I did most of the sessions at home, I wasn’t ready yet to leave the house and get to the gym or to take Coura to childcare.

My intention was to start a bike streak and bike 30 minutes a day minimum, but with my new mommy life, that didn’t always work. I still kept it as my intention, which usually got me on the bike five days a week. Some days it took me an hour to bike for 15 minutes because I was also taking care of a baby, but it was always my goal to get 30 minutes in!

For the first eight weeks, each week I just tried to add a little more time during one of my rides. For example, if I got on the bike five times, one time would be 40 minutes, and the next week that ride would be 50 minutes, and following week an hour.

I typically didn’t have time to go more than an hour so I would start adding time to a second ride of the week, working up to another ride of an hour.

By the end of the eight weeks, I was doing 2 to 3 60-minute rides and 2 to 3 30-minute rides, still at very little or no resistance.

After 8 weeks, I decided to start adding intensity to one of my weekly rides. I really like a challenge and working on improving, so I decided to do a weekly time trial on the bike at the gym.

The first week I started at level 1 and every 5 minutes went up a level. I ended up 12.0 miles in the hour. Each week I started at the next level (week 2=level 2, week 3=level 3, etc) so that I was progressively working harder each week and going longer in the hour.

I just did my week 13 time trial and have increased about 5 miles in the hour!!! I had a couple weeks where I was sick that went down, but in general I am getting better each week.

After about 8 weeks of one hard workout a week, I started adding one moderate intensity hour ride a week.
And that’s it for now! So in general I am doing my hour time trial, an hour moderate effort ride, and 3-5 30-minute easy rides.

My plan in another 4 weeks is to start increasing my moderate level ride by 30 minutes each week to train for the St George 70.3 I have coming up on May 4th.

I am finally feeling good on the bike! It will be interesting to see how my indoor fitness translates to riding outside. My goal is to get outside once a month!

Let me know if you have any questions about getting back into training after taking time off!

]]>The reason I started my blog about 4 ½ years ago was to share my life experiences to help me connect with others who may be going through the same “stuff” in life!

My blog is all about food, fitness, finance, and fun because those are the 4 biggest parts of my life.

I know there have got to be others like me who may be struggling, so I am putting my life out there in hopes of connecting with other. We are not alone!

My favorite part about sharing is when I get a message from someone saying how much they appreciate what I wrote because it helped them in some way. My mission in life is to inspire others to be better just by being myself. This is how I can do that!

So THANK YOU for loving me for ME and not because I have accomplished something or did something spectacular, but because I am human and flawed and need love and support as we all do!

I was looking through my posts from the past year. I wanted to share with you my top 11 of the year. The reason they are my faves is because they are the ones that gave me the most response from others that they appreciated the post. And the reason there are 11 is because 11 is my favorite number!!

Here we go…

My Top Posts For 2018

It is always fun to see which of my posts strikes a note with my readers. Here are the top posts from 2018!

I may have gone a little crazy on social media the past 2 weeks on posting pics of my new baby girl, but I am not apologizing. I do the same thing every time I have been proud of an accomplishment, enthusiastic about a new adventure, or pretty much anything I am excited about in my life, which is usually a lot.

On Wednesday, June 13th, exactly 4 weeks before I was “scheduled” to have my baby girl, I had some “leaking” from my girl parts. If this is already TMI, I suggest you close out and pick another one of my 200 blog posts to read instead.

Every time I post a picture of Coura on social media, I have somebody comment to “cherish this moment” or something similar. It’s probably my fault because I only post the totes adorable pictures of her and avoid posting the ones where she’s blowing a gasket or needing to eat every 45 minutes for 45 minutes, but I’m not really sure I want to treasure all of these these moments.

When I got pregnant, I suddenly went from the most optimistic, positive person on the planet to a total doomsday prepper when it came to my baby. Instantly everything weird or different or unusual happening in my body was something horrible.

I tend to set big goals and work towards accomplishing giant feats. And since I have gotten in the habit of announcing all my goals and dreams and plans to the world, when I get done with one thing, people always ask me what’s next!

When I first began to share the news that I was pregnant, after the initial shock from others wore off, I started getting stories of how awful pregnancy is. From morning sickness to being uncomfortable all the time to weird cravings and back pain! Gee, something to look forward to!

Each year I pick a word that encompasses what I am working on in my life and want to accomplish in the following year. I don’t try hard to find a word, I wait for one to choose me. I reflect on the past year, think about the upcoming year, and then meditate on how I can be the best possible version of myself.

So I thought I was DONE with Dave Ramsey’s “Baby Step 1” which is saving $1,000 to start an emergency fund. Dave Ramsey is a financial guru who gives very “common sense” and “sound” advice on finances, debt, and building wealth. He has been on the radio answering finance questions for the past 25 years. He has a general financial plan with 7 “baby steps” to help everyone get out of debt and gain more control of their personal finances.

I am constantly working toward simplifying my life. I love decluttering, organizing, and coming up with systems to help make things easier for me. With a baby girl arriving in the next 6 weeks, I am working double-time to simplify, as I know babies are time consuming and can complicate life more than it already is.

Thank you for all your love and support this past year. It has been such a big adjustment for me, mostly because I’m used to getting 10 hours of sleep a night so this ‘2 hours here and 3 hours there’ sleep is throwing me all out of whack! It gets better right?? Right??? Bueller??? Bueller?